Shadow's Embrace
by MangoLimePie
Summary: Eager for a life of her own, away from her crazy family, 16 year old Sophia Ortiz-Tucker enrolls in Duel Academy for the chance to make something of herself. Armed with a deck of dinosaurs and a heated temper, Sophia makes her grand entrance into the prestigious academy. But with dark forces stirring, how will she fare?


**Yu-Gi-Oh! **

**GX**

**Shadows Embrace**

Chapter 1: Escuela de la Elite

**Disclaimer: **I do not own YU-GI-OH! GX. All it's characters as well as it's cards and content are all owned by VIZ, Konami and Shonen Jump.

**Hello everyone! Welcome to my second fanfic, Shadow's Embrace. Don't worry, I'm not ditching Dark Destiny by any means. I am still working on it. This was a little side project that I started. Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this because I had a lot of fun writing the first chapter. Please review! Thanks, Mango. **

Domino City, home of the most famous duelists this world has ever had the privilege of knowing. There's Seto Kaiba, the owner of Kaiba Corp as well as Duel Academy itself. He's a force to be reckoned with and none would dare cross him. Then there's Joey Wheeler, a man with a lot of heart who held his own in the Battle City tournament. And then there's the King of Games, Yugi Muto. Yes, this city is home to the dueling elite and those aspiring to become such. Here is where we find a young girl by the name of Sophia Daniela Ortiz-Tucker, but people mostly call her Sophie or Phi-phi for short. She stood a proud 5'3" and had long dark brown locks that waterfall down her back. She had captivating chocolate irises with long lashes to go with them. Two black bear earrings dangled from her lobes. She wore a cowgirl hat atop her head. The rest of her attire consisted of a plaid button-up shirt with two buttons undone for comfort at the top so that her sizable bust didn't feel so squashed. She wore a bandanna around her neck as well. The rest of her was secured inside form fitting ripped jeans with a belt securing the pants and some brown cowgirl boots. On her hip was a holster for her deck of cards. In her hand was a chocolate treat known as a gansito.

"A Dios…I'm late…" Sophia sighed as she looked up at the Kaiba Dome.

**Flashback**

_"No Elena! I was going to wear that shirt!" A disgruntled Sophia cried out as she saw her sister Elena in the button up she was planning to wear to her examinations._

_ "Too bad, you wore my shirt yesterday!" Elena snapped back, prompting Sophia to pounce on her and pull her hair. _

"_No, it's mine now give it back!" Sophia growled fiercely as the two wrestled one another, stumbling out of their room in the process. At that moment the youngest sister, Rosie, made her way into the bathroom with her robe and towel and shut the door quickly._

_ "Rosie, no I need the shower or I'm going to be late!" Sophia groaned, getting off of Elena's back and running to the bathroom door to bang on it. Rosie, however, couldn't hear her as she had put her music on blast. _

"_You're never on time to anything anyway so what does it matter?" Elena mumbled, earning a scowl from her eldest sister. _

_Meanwhile in the kitchen, their mother, Miriam, was teaching their father Carl how to make chilaquiles, and he was failing…miserably. After a about thirty minutes, Rosie came out of the shower and Sophia immediately dove inside, having rescued her plaid shirt from her sister who fled to her room to put on something else. Rosie came out of her room half an hour after getting dressed and went down stairs. Elena had to settle for one of her own jean jackets with a white tank top beneath it with the matching jeans to go with them. _

"_Pendeja…" Elena muttered as she went by the bathroom, just as her sister was getting out of the shower. _

"_I heard that Elena!" Sophia shouted as the door burst open, revealing Sophia in her towel with another towel wrapped around her hair. _

_Elena had already made a break for the kitchen down stairs before Sophia could do anything. A disgruntled sigh escaped Sophia's lips as she slammed the door shut so she could start blow-drying her hair. _

"_Sophia, how many times have I told you not to slam the door?!" Her mother yelled up to her, getting no reaction at all from the defiant teen. _

_As the family was gathering around for breakfast, their grandma walked in the door. She always seemed to drop by unexpectedly. _

"_Hola mami" Miriam greeted as her mother walked inside, hugging her tightly. Her mother glanced at the dishes, and then at the kids who were sitting at the table awaiting their meal. _

"_A Dios…you kids are so lazy, how come you never clean the dishes?!" She scolded, causing Elena to roll her eyes. Rosie simply paid no attention to the conversation as she was listening to her music on her ipod. _

"_Don't roll your eyes at your grandma young lady, I raised you better than that!" Miriam reprimanded Elena who sighed and looked over at her father who simply shrugged. _

_After a while Sophia came out of the bathroom dressed and ready to go. "A Ma, que hora es?" Sophia inquired as she scurried down the stairs. _

"_It's 9:35 Sophia" her mother replied after setting out a plate for everyone. She placed the chilaquiles before Rosie who immediately complained. _

"_A Ma, I want pop tarts!" Rosie grumbled, earning an irritated look from her mother. "What do you think this is a restaurant?!" Miriam growled. _

"_Fine!" Rosie conceded, digging into her food, earning a satisfied smirk from her mother. _

"_I hate to eat and run but I'm already late thanks to somebody turning off my alarm before it was time for me to wake up" Sophia said as she glared at Elena who simply stuck her tongue out at her. Sophia simply rolled her eyes and opened the fridge and grabbed a few gansitos from the box as well as a bag of churros she'd packed the night before. _

"_So, who's goin' fishin' with me this weekend? How about you Elena?" Carl inquired. _

"_Sorry papa, I have plans already, why don't you ask Rosie?" Elena said as she nudged her sister. Rosie simply looked over at her sister and then at her dad and shook her head no. _

"_Don't worry Papa, I'll go with you when I come back from the exams, now I've gotta go" Sophia said as she made her way to the door. _

"_How come you didn't say hi to me? You need to learn to be respectful, you never say hi whenever I come over" her grandma scolded as Sophia was about to exit._

"_Sorry!" Sophia groaned as she ran over and hugged her grandma before turning to her parents to hug them as well. _

"_Bye pumpkin, knock'em dead at the exams. Show'em who's boss" Carl said as he hugged and kissed his daughter. _

"_Be careful out there Sophia, don't speak to anyone strange you don't know what their intentions are." her mother said as she hugged Sophia. _

"_A ma, I'm 16 now I'll be fine. Now I've got to go I'm already late" Sophia said as she bolted for the door. _

"_Is your phone charged? Make sure you have money to get something to eat and I expect you to call me as soon as you get there. Are you sure you don't want me to take you?!" Her mother called to her just as the door closed. "What if it gets cold?!"_

**End Flashback**

"My family is crazy…" Sophia thought as she crumpled up her gansito wrapper and threw it in a nearby trashcan.

Sophia walked inside the Kaiba Dome and glanced around at everyone in the large auditorium. She looked around and saw a desk with an instructor sitting behind it with his arms crossed. Sophia sighed softly as she walked over to the desk, gaining the instructors attention.

"Name?" The instructor inquired, glancing at Sophia curiously.

"Sophia Tucker…I'm sorry I'm late…there was a bit of an incident this morning…" Sophia said with a nervous laugh, remembering the earlier fiasco. The instructor simply nodded and handed her the written exam.

"You have 35 minutes to complete the exam, I hope you studied…" the instructor said flatly as he handed her the exam.

Sophia sweat-dropped and took the paper gratefully and made her way to a seat where she could take the exam. After the examination was over she walked out of the testing room and back into the main area where there were several duel fields set up for each applicant. Sophia couldn't wait for her duel. She was excited that was for certain. Her parents had saved up quite a bit of money for her to be able to attend, although it was mostly thanks to her grandma. She had picked up dueling from a friend of hers who had enrolled in the academy a year prior to Sophia. After having explained the concept of the game to Sophia a dozen times, she finally understood and began to do some studying of the game on her own. She'd seen other students dueling, but mostly on tables with the cards. She remembered her first experience seeing the holograms. It was thrilling and that's mainly what got her interested. As time went on she grew to love every aspect of the game and eventually she found a favorite deck to use. Sophia had always been fascinated with dinosaurs. To her, there was nothing more badass than the T-Rex in one of the last scenes in Jurassic Park. And when she found out there were dinosaur cards, she couldn't resist the game any longer.

"**SOPHIA ORTIZ-TUCKER, REPORT TO FIELD 15 FOR YOUR DUELING EXAMINATION!" **The voice over the loudspeaker projected, prompting Sophia to look around at the numbers. She saw her field and rushed towards it, not wanting to keep the duel proctor waiting.

Sophia glanced over at her proctor who was a male wearing an Obelisk uniform. He had jet black hair that was slicked back and he had blue eyes and a goatee.

"Missing something?" The proctor inquired as he pointed to Sophia's wrist.

"My duel disk!" Sophia exclaimed, turning to rush towards the desk where she'd picked up her exam to grab a duel disk. The instructor behind the desk simply raised a brow as she dashed off.

"Sorry!" She said as she made her return to the field, attaching it to her left wrist and sighing in relief. _'I really need to calm down…'_ Sophia thought as she adjusted the disk for comfort.

"Are you ready?" The proctor replied while looking down at his watch as if he had somewhere to be.

"Yes, I'm ready" Sophia replied eagerly, although inside she was nervous. This was a test, and she HATED tests. But in order to get into the same academy as her friend, she needed to pass it. Unlike the written exam, where she was in a room with a few students, this was a practical where everyone could see her skill, or the lack thereof depending on how it went.

"Shall we begin?" The proctor inquired, raising his duel disk and activating it, showing he didn't wish to waste time.

"Er…yes, of course, sorry!" Sophia replied anxiously as she activated her own duel disk.

"DUEL!"

**Sophia (4000)**

**Vs.**

**Proctor (4000)**

"To start things off, I'm going to play Goblin Attack Force in attack mode" the proctor declared, summoning a small army of goblins to the field. Goblin Attack Force (4/ATK/2300 DEF/0). "I'll place two cards face down and end my turn" The proctor finished, setting his traps and looking back at Sophia.

"My turn then…" Sophia said as she stared at her hand nervously.

"I activate my trap card Goblin Thief! This allows me to inflict 500 points of damage to you while raising my life points by the same amount" The proctor interrupted as his trap card opened up revealing a goblin who popped out of the card and lunged at Sophia, toppling her, taking a holographic pouch from her and running back to the proctor.

"That was rude!" Sophia huffed as she watched her life points drop by 500 points. She sighed as she dusted herself off and looked at her hand once more.

'_Ah, here we go!'_ Sophia thought excitedly as she looked at one of the cards in her hand. "I summon Black Brachios in attack mode!" Sophia declared, bringing forth a behemoth of an obsidian dinosaur. Black Brachios (4/ATK/1800 DEF/1100)

"When he's normal summoned, I get to switch one monster on the field to defense mode, and your Goblin Attack Force is just the one I want!" Sophia declared as her dinosaur growled at the army of goblins, forcing them to take a knee.

"Now Black Brachios, attack now!" Sophia commanded. But as her monster swung its tail a smirk appeared on the proctor's visage.

"Sorry Sophia, but you triggered my trap, Final Attack Orders!" The proctor flipped over his trap which prompted Goblin Attack Force to switch from defense mode to attack mode.

"That can't be good!" Sophia despaired as her dinosaur's attack connected, only for it to be blocked. The goblins counterattacked and her monster shattered into pixels.

**Sophia (3000)**

**Vs.**

**Proctor (4500)**

"Estupida…" Sophia grumbled under her breath as she watched her life points drop. With a sigh she looked back at her hand. "I place two cards face down and end my turn"

"Then it's my turn" the proctor said as he drew. "I summon Blindly Loyal Goblin to the field in attack mode." As the proctor played the card, another Goblin came out onto the field wielding a blade. Blindly Loyal Goblin (4/ATK/1800 DEF/1500).

'_As if the others weren't ugly enough already…this guy looks disgusting'_ Sophia thought as she saw the goblin appear.

"You realize that if I'm able to attack you directly you will fail right?" The proctor explained, getting Sophia's attention.

"Y-yes sir!" She said nervously, guarding herself as she prepared for what the proctor was about to do. "I attack with Goblin Attack Force!" The proctor declared, sending his horde of goblins to attack her head on. A grin appeared on Sophia's lips as she shot her hand over her face down.

"I activate my trap, Negate Attack!" Sophia proclaimed. A barrier shot up between her and the goblins, causing them to bump into it and stumble over each other comically. The goblins all grumbled and shook their fists at Sophia who simply stuck her tongue out at them.

"Get back you stupid trolls!" Sophia shouted, placing her hands on her hips with a huff.

"I suppose I'll just end my turn then" The proctor said plainly, turning his attention back to Sophia.

"Bueno…now let's see…" Sophia said as she drew her next card. "I activate my other trap card Skull Lair!" Sophia declared, opening her trap card with a grin. Behind her appeared a hallway with a single torch and bones littering the floor.

"I'm going to activate the spell card Foolish Burial to send a Hyper Hammerhead to the graveyard" Sophia said as she sent her monster to the grave.

"Now I play the magic of Card Destruction" Sophia announced, placing the card into the slot to activate its effect. "Now we discard our cards and draw until we have the same amount as before" Sophia explained with a grin.

Sophia drew three new cards and glanced at her new hand. "Now I'm activating the effect of my Skull Lair, by removing four monsters in my graveyard from play, I'm able to destroy one monster on the field…like Goblin Attack Force!" Sophia declared, removing her monsters from play. At that moment the Goblin Attack force dispersed into pixels, leaving the Blindly Loyal Goblin to fend for itself.

"Next I'll set a monster in defense mode and end my turn" Sophia declared, happy to be rid of Goblin Attack Force.

"A well played move, however it will take more than that to win" The proctor reminded, drawing his next card. "I summon Giant Orc in attack mode!" A large pale orc with a massive club appeared, bashing its chest before assuming the offensive stance. Giant Orc (4/ATK/2200 DEF/0).

"Again with the high attack points!" Sophia exclaimed as she saw the power on his monster.

"And I plan to put them to good use, but first, Blindly Loyal Goblin…attack her monster!" The goblin lunged at her face down and smashed it to bits. The monster was another Hyper Hammerhead.

"Now Giant Orc attacks you directly!" The orc rushed forth and bashed its club against Sophia's frame, taking 2200 life points from her.

"I'll end with that" the proctor declared, crossing his arms as he observed Sophia.

'_This isn't good…'_ Sophia thought as she glanced at her life points.

**Sophia (800)**

**Vs.**

**Proctor (4500)**

'_Okay Sophia…calm down…just do what you always do when you're in a pinch…'_ Sophia thought as she reached down to her pocket and pulled out her earphones and inserting them. She pushed the button on her ipod and a song began to play in her ears. At that moment she closed her eyes and began to dance, her hips swaying with the rhythm of the beat.

"What's with her?" A student in the crowd asked the girl sitting next to him as he watched the duel.

"It's her mantra, whenever she's in a pinch she dances" the brunette Obelisk replied as she watched Sophia's movements.

"How do you know this?" The blonde boy asked curiously, glancing at Sophia as her body moved in perfect sync with the beat in her ears.

"I'm her friend, we've known one another since we were kids. And this usually spells trouble for her opponents because once she's in the zone…" Her friend explained, just as Sophia's eyes shot open "she can't be stopped."

Sophia drew her card and continued to sway, and a smirk crossed her visage as she saw what she'd drawn. "First I play the spell cards Hand Destruction and Pot of Greed!" Sophia declared as she drew two cards from Pot of Greed and both her and the proctor drew two cards from Hand Destruction. Both of them discarded two after wards.

"Now I'll play my other Foolish Burial to send another monster to the graveyard so I'll send my last Hyper Hammerhead to the grave!" Sophia declared, gaining a raised brow from the instructor.

"Now that I've got four more monsters in the graveyard, I'm going to remove them from play to destroy Giant Orc!" Sophia belted out, removing her monsters souls to the outer dimensions to bring about Giant Orc's destruction.

"Okay…so where's she going with this?" The blonde boy asked as Sophia's friend watched intently.

"Just wait" the brunette said with a grin. "If I know Sophia like I think I do…she'll end this duel right now" her friend said with a chuckle.

Sophia held up one of the cards in her hand with a grin. "I think it's time we put an end to this duel" Sophia giggled, raising the card into the air.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but how do you plan to do that when you haven't even touched me?" The proctor questioned, wondering what gave her the idea she could finish him this turn.

"Oh it's simple really, by summoning Tyranno Infinity!" Sophia declared as she slammed the card onto the duel disk, watching as the field gave birth to a new terror.

The gigantic T-Rex emerged onto the field and roared fiercly. Tyranno Infinity (4/ATK/? DEF/0).

"What on earth? It's got no attack points!" The proctor exclaimed, even more confused at what she was planning.

"Remember how I kept using Skull Lair to destroy your monsters instead of attacking them? Well, all of the monsters I removed were dinosaur monsters…and Tyranno Infinity gets its name because he gains 1000 attack points for every dinosaur I've removed, and since I destroyed two of your monsters that were four stars, that means I have eight dinosaurs removed bringing Tyranno Infinity's attack power to a whopping 8000 points!" Sophia explained.

Tyranno Infinity roared as power surged through its veins like an electrical current, raising its attack power tremendously. Tyranno Infinity (4/ATK/8000 DEF/0).

"Go Tyranno Infinity, make a meal out of that goblin!" Sophia declared as her monster rampaged across the field, opening its jaws with lethal intent. The large dinosaur tossed the goblin into the air and clamped down onto it with deadly force, dispersing it into pixels. The proctor's life points dropped rapidly down to zero.

**Sophia (800)**

**Vs. **

**Proctor (0000)**

"YES! I did it!" Sophia exclaimed as she switched off her ipod and unplugged her earphones. In the audience, a grin appeared on the face of her friend who had been watching unbeknownst to Sophia.

"Congrats Sophia, welcome to the Academy" the proctor said with a smirk, deactivating his duel disk, prompting Sophia to do the same.

"Thank you!" Sophia said as she turned around and made her way back to the desk where she got her disk. She unequipped it and handed it to the instructor and then walked away.

"Awesome duel Sophia" a familiar voice said, prompting Sophia to turn around.

"Emily!" Sophia chirped, pulling her friend into a tight hug. Emily giggled slightly and tapped her friend on the shoulder.

"Um, Sophia, you're crushing me" she laughed, causing Sophia to let go. "You may be small but you should really mind your strength" Emily chuckled.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to!" Sophia blushed, twiddling her thumbs out of embarrassment.

"Anyway, we'll catch up later, you really should get your uniform" Emily reminded, pointing to another desk where the uniforms were being handed out.

"Okay Emily, I'll catch you later!" Sophia said as she scurried away to get her uniform. Since she took the test the day of the practical exams, it wouldn't matter what her score was she would be placed in Slifer Red, which is exactly what she got.

'_So I'm a Slifer huh? I was hoping I would get something more prestigious like Obelisk or at least be in Ra…but eh, I can rock red I suppose' _Sophia thought as she threw her uniform over her shoulder and walked out of the stadium. She would be leaving for Duel academy in two short weeks.

Sophia made her way down the street about a few blocks before arriving at her driveway. As she walked in the door she saw her little boy cousins chasing each other with squirt guns and her sisters tickling her little girl cousins. She wondered when they had arrived. Her Uncle must have dropped them off. The three young boys stopped and turned to see their oldest cousin Sophia and immediately began to plot mischief.

"If you three even think about it I'm going to hang you by your ankles and tickle you until you say uncle…" Sophia warned, prompting the boys to lower their weapons and run to find something else to get into.

"Sophia Daniela Ortiz-Tucker!" Her mother called out as she got home. "How come you didn't call me? I was worried about you! You really need to listen to me when I talk to you young lady, if anything happened to you I don't know what I would have done. What do you have to say for yourself?" Miriam asked impatiently as Sophia tossed her Slifer blazer on the table.

Her mother went silent as she saw the uniform. "I'm in" Sophia said with a bright smile.

"Everyone, Sophia made it into the Academy!" Miriam shouted, causing everyone to cease what they were doing. Her sisters ran in to congratulate her and her little cousins all crowded around her wanting to see the uniform.

"A Dios, give me some air!" Sophia shouted, making everyone back away a little.

"Where's my little pumpkin?!" Carl exclaimed pulling Sophia in for a bear hug, lifting her up a little.

"Papi! You're going to break my ribs!" Sophia whined, causing her father to put her down gently.

"I knew you could do it!" Her father laughed, patting her on the back with his massive hand while beaming proudly at his daughter's accomplishment.

"So, when do you leave? Do you need help packing? And do you need me to take you, because I can if you want me to" Her mother bombarded, earning a sigh from Sophia.

"A Ma, I'll be fine, don't worry okay? I'm going to pack a suitcase and you guys can send the things I'm going to list over okay?"Sophia said as she turned to her sisters who were holding the uniform up to themselves to see how well it would fit them.

They were also aspiring duelists hoping to one day enter Duel Academy. Elena was 13 years old and Rosie was 11 years old. It wouldn't be long before all of them were in the same school together, which frightened Sophia a little considering how the three of them act when they're together.

"All of that aside, Papa, are you up for fishing this weekend still?" Sophia inquired, earning a bright smile from her father.

"You bet pumpkin. I'll get the poles and gear together and we'll drive out and go fishing tomorrow" Carl said with a grin.

Sophia loved fishing with her father, it was a relaxing activity and it was a good time to bond with him. The days seemed to go by swiftly and soon it was time for Sophia to get on the boat to Duel Academy Island. Sophia's family, yes, all of them, were there to see her off. She couldn't have been any happier than she was at that moment. She would be gone for a year from her family. The island would be her home and the students would be her family. Many adventures await Sophia on her journey to Duel Academy.


End file.
